Comparison of Inquiries to House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code and Canada Elections Act

There are a whole series of differences between:

The inquiry made by the Ethics Commissioner as to whether Stephen Harper violated Section 8 of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons when he approached Mr. Emerson about joining the Conservative Party Cabinet and

The inquiry made by the Commissioner of Canada Elections about Subsection 482(b) of the Canada Elections Act.

The two sets of inquiries were about a different possible violator of a different body of rules enforced by different people. Note also that the request made to the Ethics Commissioner was about possible inducement of Mr. Emerson, whereas Subsection 482(b) is about inducement of voters, and hence more “grass roots” in nature. Figure 2 summarizes the preceding differences:

Figure 2: Comparison of inquiries into possible violations of
Section 8 of House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code and
Subsection 482(b) of Canada Elections
Act with respect to MP David Emerson’s 2006 switch of parties

Stephen
Harper

David Emerson

House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code

Canada Elections Act

furthering
private interests
in inducement?

(Ethics Commissioner:
Bernard Shapiro)

pretence or contrivance
in inducement?

(Commissioner of Canada
Elections:
Raymond A. Landry)

[submitted Fri 10 Feb
06;
response Mon 20 Mar]

[submitted Sun 12 Feb
06;
response received Tue 21 Mar]

David Emerson

Voters

2007 www.DavidEmersonLegal.com

Another difference worth stressing is that the Canada Elections Act inquiry was just about Mr. Emerson's switching of political parties, whereas the House of Commons Code inquiry was about Mr. Emerson switching parties and taking a Cabinet position (in their requests for an inquiry, Mr. Julian, Mr. Easter, and Mr. Wilfert all suggested that the latter was the inducement for the former).

► More on the inquiry into Section 8 of the House of Commons Conflict of Interest Code.

► More on the request for an opinion about Subsection 482(b) of the Canada Elections Act.